Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/203

152 and opposed to Pratt in politics, secured the passage of a bill stopping the payment of the judgment. The matter then rested until 1862, when a law was enacted, chiefly through the influence of Judge Deady, authorizing persons having claims against the territory or state to bring suit for recovery. Under this act Pratt brought suit, and obtained judgment for the amount, receiving $5,108.94, in November 1863, twenty-two years after the property was taken in charge by the Methodist Mission.

Slacum, after having been of such real service to the settlers, sailed for San Blas a few days after his arrival in California, on his way through Mexico to Washington. He took a share in the company, and deputed Young to take charge of his proportion of the stock, amounting to twenty-three animals. Four years afterward, in consequence of Slacum's death, his nephew, a midshipman of the United States exploring squadron, claimed his uncle's share, with the increase, which amounted to sixty-three, and these he obtained and sold to McLoughlin for $860.

From the presence of Ewing Young in Oregon sprang two important events in the settlement of the country: the coming of an authorized agent of the United States, and the disinthralment of the settlers from what they felt to be the oppressive bondage of the fur company. By his death Ewing Young gave the colony a further and still more important impulse, as will be shown during the progress of events.

From the life of Ewing Young—indeed, from any man's life—we may safely conclude that it is better to laugh at sorrow and slight, and even indignity, especially where the wrong is only fancied, as is usually the case, than to cry over these things. There is nothing in the wide world worth mourning for; if all